كَانَاwere

Example sentences

• أَبَرُّ مَنْ كَانَا فِي هَذِهِ الْأُمَّةِ بِأُمِّهِمَا

  More dutiful to their mother than anyone in this community.

  كَانَا — they were. This is the past 'to be' verb with a DUAL ending, '(the two of) them were', its shape marking exactly two subjects. So the count again lives in the verb-ending, not a separate word. It sits inside the relative clause, describing the pair within the community that the comparison measures against.

  From: Mothers and the Companions →

• وَفِيهَا أَنَّهُمَا كَانَا عُرْيَانَيْنِ

  And in it they were both naked.

  كَانَا — they were both. The 'to be' verb in the dual past, '-a' marking exactly two subjects, Adam and Eve. It supplies the 'were' that Arabic otherwise omits, anchoring the description that follows; the dual carries 'the two of them were'.

  From: Adam, Eve, and the Forbidden Tree →